Drone Drug Deliveries to California Prisons Have Resulted in Charges for Four People

Drugs are being dropped inside of California state prisons using drones. A federal lawsuit alleges that four males, including two from the Sacramento area, engaged in criminal flight activity. Even the tallest prison walls in California were no match for the drug-smuggling drones.

Four individuals have been arrested in connection with the drone attacks on nine state prisons, including California State Prison, Sacramento, according to court filings. Several counts have been filed against Michael Ray Acosta, Jose Enrique Oropeza, Rosendo Rene Ramirez, and David Ramirez, Jr.

According to the documents, the guys are suspected of plotting to utilize drones to smuggle contraband like as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, cell phones, chargers, and phone components into the jails. In some instances, the accused hid the illegal goods in the head of a mop or released the pigeon carrying them from a jail roof.

Drone Drops Delivering Drugs to California Prisons
Drone Drops Delivering Drugs to California Prisons

According to Dr. Shelby Moffatt, a criminology professor at Sacramento State, the new technological method replaces traditional methods such as having family members or jail employees bring in drugs. “The new version of using drones to drop the drugs in,” Moffatt said.

All the most recent news and events in the Golden State may be found in one convenient place at these sources:

“How many of these officers can be watching every single inmate at every single minute of the day, for them to be doing the things they do?” The drop of a drone at an Ohio prison was seen on camera. In a courtyard outside, a prisoner looked skyward, possibly trying to judge when he would be dropped.

Prison officials in Ohio say inmates dropped off some marijuana and a cell phone in a parcel. “Law enforcement is always slow to catch up to technology,” Moffatt said. The defendants in this case allegedly planned to make their drops at night and while it was quiet so that the drones wouldn’t be spotted or heard.

They went so far as to purchase camouflage clothing to conceal themselves while transporting drugs and mobile phones by airplane. The maximum term for all four defendants is life in prison if they are found guilty.

The California Examiner can be followed on Twitter if you want to be kept in the loop about everything that is going on in the state.

Scroll to Top